Bush’s LV land grab is losing its grip

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, July 28, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration proposal to funnel the profits from the sale of public lands in Clark County from Nevada to federal coffers is down -- but not out, several lawmakers said.

After Nevada lawmakers waged a quiet but relentless lobbying campaign of their colleagues against the measure, the proposal did not emerge as part of an Interior Department spending bill agreed on by House and Senate negotiators this week.

That means it is almost surely dead for the year.

But the Nevadans expect envious lawmakers to be back next year to seek another grab for hundreds of millions of dollars that are pouring into the state from the public land sales. White House officials got the attention of some lawmakers when they argued that federal taxpayers were entitled to a share of the federal land sale windfall.

"The temptation rises as the amount of money rises," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said.

Nevada lawmakers immediately opposed the measure that was part of Bush's 2006 budget proposal, unveiled in February. It would have siphoned 70 percent of the proceeds from federal land sales in Clark County to the treasury to offset the deficit.

The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act set up how the money from auctions would be distributed. The profits -- more than $2 billion so far -- have been used solely in Nevada for lands, education and water programs.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said they had secured enough opposition to kill the proposal in the Senate. But the Bush recommendation is still percolating in the House.

Lawmakers have floated a proposal to siphon at least 35 percent of land sale profits to the Treasury. Another proposal to direct a study of how the land sale money is spent in Nevada was viewed by Nevada officials as a thinly veiled suggestion that the state doesn't need all that cash.

Gibbons said he speaks regularly with Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., whose panel has jurisdiction over the issue. Gibbons is a member of the panel. Pombo has vowed to help protect Nevada interests, Gibbons said.

Still, Gibbons said the Bush proposal is an "unknown" entity because so much money was at stake.

Ensign said the proposal will haunt the delegation next year and in future years. Ensign said Bush administration officials and congressional allies won't abandon their effort to obtain a cut of the federal land sale money.

"It's going to be a constant battle," Ensign said. "The pot of money is too big."

Ensign said he is still confident in the commitment made by Senate Republican allies who have agreed to oppose the proposal. But he said Nevada lawmakers in the future will be vigilant of the White House, House lawmakers and House-Senate negotiators who meet in the closed-door conference rooms to hammer out final versions of Interior Department legislation.